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Alias the Doctor

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Alias the Doctor
Lobby card
Directed byMichael Curtiz
Written byHouston Branch (screenplay)
Charles Kenyon (dialogue)
Based onA Kuruzslo
1927 play
by Imre Földes
StarringRichard Barthelmess
Marian Marsh
Norman Foster
Adrienne Dore
Lucille La Verne
Oscar Apfel
John St. Polis
George Rosener
CinematographyBarney McGill
Edited byFrank Magee (as Frank McGee)
William Holmes
Music byBernhard Kaun
Sam Perry
Production
company
Distributed byFirst National Pictures
Release date
  • 1932 (1932)
Running time
61 mins/69 mins (UK)
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$371,000[1]
Box office$641,000[1]

Alias the Doctor is a 1932 pre-Code American drama film directed by Michael Curtiz, and starring Richard Barthelmess and Marian Marsh.

Plot

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The story concerns a man who assumes his dead brother's identity, and becomes a renowned surgeon, despite not having completed medical school.

Cast

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Background

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The film's original script involved a playboy medical student who performs an unspecified operation on his girlfriend, before earning his medical degree. The girl dies from the botched operation, and his foster brother takes the blame. The Hays Office objected because it believed that audiences would assume that the operation was an abortion. In response, Warner Bros. changed the script to provide a specific cause for the operation. In the revised script, the two lovers argue, and the girl is injured when she tumbles down the stairs. Originally, Boris Karloff played a small role in the film as a surgeon, which was cut from the film by censors, and the Karloff footage no longer exists.[3]

Reception

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According to Warner Bros. records, the film earned $460,000 domestically, and $181,000 foreign.[1]

References

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  1. ^ a b c Warner Bros financial information in The William Schaefer Ledger. See Appendix 1, Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, (1995) 15:sup1, 1-31 p. 13 DOI: 10.1080/01439689508604551
  2. ^ Jacobs, Stephen (2011). Boris Karloff: More Than A Monster. Tomahawk Press. ISBN 978-0-9557670-4-3.
  3. ^ Kirby, David A. (September 2017). "Regulating cinematic stories about reproduction: pregnancy, childbirth, abortion, and movie censorship in the US, 1930–1958". The British Journal for the History of Science. 50 (3): 451–472. doi:10.1017/S0007087417000814. ISSN 0007-0874. PMID 28923130.
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